ALPINE  The first day of a teachers strike in the Alpine Union School District ended with differing conclusions: Administrators described a smooth Thursday at all five campuses, while picketing teachers said many students didn’t show up for school and that some classes lacked substitute instructors.

The opposing sides agreed on this point: As the county’s first teachers strike since 1996 enters its second day, their wish lists remain far apart. The most recent negotiations were held Tuesday, and even though the parties said Thursday night that they want to resume talks, they haven’t set a date to meet again.

Leaders for the district and the Alpine Teachers Association also haven’t ventured an estimate on how long the standoff might last.

About 6:30 a.m. Thursday, nearly 100 strikers showed up with signs at Joan MacQueen Middle School for a rally before dispersing to their individual school sites to picket. In addition to Alpine teachers, the strikers included educators from South County, Ramona and Imperial County and members of the California Teachers Association.

At the heart of the more than yearlong conflict over how to balance the district’s budget is how much state education funding the district expects to receive this year, how much of a salary reduction teachers should bear and how much the district should contribute to employees’ health-care benefits.

On Jan. 31, the district imposed a 7.58 percent salary cut for teachers and trimmed its maximum contribution to employee health benefits from $13,500 to $8,000 a year. The cuts are projected to shrink the deficit in the district’s nearly $14.7 million operating budget from $1.05 million to $623,000.

Similar cuts proposed for nonteaching employees, along with anticipated state revenue, are expected to get the district out of the red by June 30.

Bargaining that was scheduled for today between the district and classified employees was canceled Thursday, with no new date set for negotiations.

Lori Hernandez, a seventh-grade teacher at MacQueen Middle School, said she and her colleagues are being reasonable.

“This is not about a raise for teachers,” she said. “We are actually striking for a fair pay cut.”

Alpine Superintendent Tom Pellegrino said the district is open to further discussions with the teachers union, and that he’s “saddened by the fact the kids are put in the mix of employer-employee disputes.”

Entreating striking teachers to return to their classrooms, he added: “If I could pay them double, I would do it today. But I will not put forward a deal that would bankrupt the district.”

On Jan. 31, the union’s rank and file had rejected a tentative agreement reached by representatives of both sides. During the Tuesday bargaining session, district officials said they wouldn’t make a new counterproposal at that time because the union sought $700,000 more than what was stipulated in the Jan. 31 deal.

Gayle Malone, president of the Alpine Teachers Association, said the district walked away from the table without listening to all of the union’s ideas.

“We had three proposals prepared,” she said. “We didn’t even get to the third one. We broke for lunch. When we came back, it was the district’s turn for a counterproposal and they said, ‘We have nothing for you.’ For (Pellegrino) to twist that as us refusing to negotiate is ridiculous.”

Union leaders estimated that 86 Alpine teachers honored the strike Thursday, while administrators said 11 of the district’s 91 teachers reported for work.

Student attendance was about 65 percent of normal, according to Pellegrino. Recent figures show that the district has 1,820 students.

The district loses some state money for every 131 students per day who fail to attend school without a medical or other legally acceptable reason. But because Alpine Union is already experiencing declining enrollment — it lost 120 students in the last academic year and is projected to lose 74 more this year, regardless of the strike — the state is essentially granting a temporary grace period until the 2014-15 school year.

The average teacher in the district earns nearly $400 a day, while strike replacements are receiving $250 a day, Pellegrino said. Striking teachers cannot use vacation or sick time to offset their lost wages.

Overall, many people said Thursday was an emotional chapter in the district-teacher conflict.

Parent Shana Ross told picketing teachers that when she went to drop off her child at Creekside Elementary, she saw three or four unsupervised children in an office, with one first-grader hiding under a desk and crying. Union leaders said numerous parents took their children back home after assessing the day’s developments.

In the morning, Pellegrino said the instructional day was “functioning as planned, with no incidents to report.” He added: “The union’s strike is unfortunate, but Alpine schools will remain safe for students and staff. They will continue to be good places to teach and learn.”

When school let out in the afternoon at Boulder Creek Elementary, about a dozen picketing teachers yelled at departing substitute teachers. Some strikers used their cellphones to take pictures of the substitutes’ license plates and their faces as they drove off.

Retired Grossmont Union High School District employee Genevieve Seaman and her husband, Bruce, a retired educator from El Cajon Valley High, live in Alpine and marched in solidarity with Alpine teachers Thursday.

“We are so disheartened,” Genevieve Seaman said. “I have had a chance to observe the teachers in this district and have been so impressed by their level of dedication to the students.”

Gina Henke, an Alpine Union board member, took the day off from her teaching job in the Lakeside district to substitute at MacQueen Middle School, although she said later that she was not needed in a classroom and did not teach.

“We know how important our schools are to the parents,” she said. “Their passion is high. They want to take teachers at their word and believe what the teachers have to say, but they don’t have the full facts.”